Facade of Das Devesas Factory Renovation / Anarchlab, Architecture Laboratory

© Ivo Tavares Studio

Completed in 2020 by Portuguese Architecture firm Anarchlab, Architecture Laboratory, the newly renovated factory is part of a set of constructions by the company Fábrica de Cerâmica das Devesas, in Porto. The inevitable programmatic transformation took into account the historical and architectural legacy of the original building.

Das Devesas Factory Technical Information

Organized through the careful distribution of simple volumes with a monolithic aspect, such as the stone blocks that populated the warehouse in the bustling activity of the old Ceramics Factory of Devesas, the habitable space appears as voids that result from the dialogue between these simple and solid built masses.

– Anarchlab, Architecture Laboratory

Fábrica Das Devesas Photographs
Roof of Das Devesas Factory Renovation / Anarchlab, Architecture Laboratory

© Ivo Tavares Studio

Color Facade - Das Devesas Factory Renovation / Anarchlab, Architecture Laboratory

© Ivo Tavares Studio

Edifício Fábrica das Devesas / Anarchlab, Architecture Laboratory

© Ivo Tavares Studio

Edifício Fábrica das Devesas / Anarchlab, Architecture Laboratory

© Ivo Tavares Studio

Edifício Fábrica das Devesas / Anarchlab, Architecture Laboratory

© Ivo Tavares Studio

Edifício Fábrica das Devesas / Anarchlab, Architecture Laboratory

© Ivo Tavares Studio

Edifício Fábrica das Devesas / Anarchlab, Architecture Laboratory

© Ivo Tavares Studio

Edifício Fábrica das Devesas / Anarchlab, Architecture Laboratory

© Ivo Tavares Studio

Text by the Architects

This set consists of 3 buildings: a larger one, designed for an office, product warehouse, store, exhibition hall, and showcase, with an imposing facade facing Rua José Falcão; the building we renovated, which was the marble workshop, but which also worked as a house on the top floor; and a house that belonged to Feliciano Rodrigues da Rocha, one of the three partners of Fábrica das Devesas.

The old marble workshop is located at Rua da Conceição, with a common courtyard to this building and to the warehouse, which functions as a joint between both, articulating the façades for the two streets, Rua José Falcão and Rua da Conceição, perpendicular to each other.

We are welcomed by a wide and extensive common area, full of natural light, which reveals the striking height of the internal space, completely imperceptible from the street.

Despite being classified as a Monument of Public Interest, the building’s entire interior was demolished when the project was started, with only the façades and roofs (already in bad condition) from the original construction. The inevitable programmatic transformation took into account the historical and architectural legacy of the original building that had resisted: the main and East façades were completely rehabilitated without any change, while the South façade, already very transformed at the time, gained prominence in the set, with a new color scheme and with the introduction of a round glass window that gives geometric balance to the whole set and reestablishes the communication with the surroundings.

Inside, the essence of the old stone warehouse is maintained: after the uphill journey, with similar morphology to the original, we are welcomed by a wide and extensive common area, full of natural light, which reveals the striking height of the internal space, completely imperceptible from the street. The structure that reinforces all the existing and added construction, the renovated roof, and the top floor, is exposed in a very raw fashion, helping to show the metrics of the entrances to the apartments, the way up to the top floor, and the modulation of the large glass skylights that let in natural light, at the same time keeping the industrial ambiance of the old building.

There are now 12 apartments in the interior, from the loft-type with mezzanine to two-bedroom apartments, spread over 2 main floors, plus the last one with a smaller area, which constitutes the mezzanines of the lofts. Organized inside through the careful distribution of simple volumes (cabinets, kitchens, bathrooms) with a monolithic aspect, such as the stone blocks that populated the warehouse in the bustling activity of the old Ceramics Factory of Devesas, the habitable space appears as voids that result from the dialogue between these simple and solid built masses, with neutral tones, such as gray and black, over a riga wood floor that constitutes the plane where the great massive volumes rest upon.

Das Devesas Factory Plans
Cross-Section-Edifício Fábrica das Devesas / Anarchlab, Architecture Laboratory

Das Devesas Factory Section

First-Floor-Plan-Edifício Fábrica das Devesas / Anarchlab, Architecture Laboratory

First Floor

Second-Floor-Plan-Edifício Fábrica das Devesas / Anarchlab, Architecture Laboratory

Second Floor

Third-Floor-Plan-Edifício Fábrica das Devesas / Anarchlab, Architecture Laboratory

Third Floor

Edifício Fábrica das Devesas Image Gallery
About Anarchlab, Architecture Laboratory

Founded in 2013 in Porto, the studio is led by Portuguese architects Pedro Ribeiro da Silva and Pedro Barata. Individually or collectively, several of their projects have been awarded in national and international competitions and were represented at the Ibero-American Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism, Lisbon Architecture Triennale, and Venice Architecture Biennale.

Other works from Anarchlab, Architecture Laboratory

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